​Kim Dotcom loses key evidence battle at NZ Supreme Court

New Zealand’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Kim Dotcom’s legal team, which was seeking full access to US-gathered evidence against his client before proceeding with his extradition case.

Dotcom, who made a fortune through his file-sharing website
Megaupload, is fighting extradition to the United States, where
he is charged with facilitating copyright infringement on a
massive scale. They say the site caused $500 million in damages
to copyright holders and generated more than $175 million in
criminal proceeds.

The internet mogul’s extradition case is yet to be heard, but the
US acting through New Zealand’s prosecutors refused to provide
his lawyers full access to evidence against him, arguing that a
legal summary would be sufficient.

The defense team secured rulings from a District Court and the
High Court ordering a full disclosure of evidence, but they were
overturned last year at a Court of Appeals.

Dotcom appealed to the Supreme Court, but the judges upheld the
ban on Friday, endorsing the prosecutor’s argument that New
Zealand’s extradition laws do not require a full disclosure. The
judges agreed that allowing full access to the evidence could bog
down the extradition process.

"The US has been given a free ride to cherry pick whatever
allegations they want," Ira Rothken, Dotcom's American
lawyer, told Ars Technica. "Now, there's not an even playing
field in the extradition proceeding. It's an unfair
situation."

Rothken added that much of the evidence in question is Dotcom’s
own data, which was seized from him in a police raid.

Dotcom’s legal troubles over Megaupload started in January 2012,
when dozens of officers stormed his New Zealand home and arrested
him. The website was shut down, with millions of legal files made
inaccessible along with any illegal content.

Marking the anniversary of the bust last year, Dotcom launched a
new file-sharing service called “Mega”, which uses encryption of
files to ensure privacy.

The businessman insists that he cannot be held accountable for
Megaupload users’ illegal sharing.